Just Three Days
by TeaThe42
Summary: Rose is tired and in need of a holiday. She makes a deal with the Doctor: they'll go wherever the TARDIS takes them and spend three days there without saving anyone. But those three days turn out to be a lot longer than they anticipated.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note**: Well, here we go. My first story. I know it's kinda short and not very good but, hey, I'm trying! For now this is rated K but, let's face it, it's Rose and Ten on holidays, things aren't gonna stay K for long. Anyway, my whole fanfiction career depends on how you guys like this, so please review :) Also, as I said, it's my first fanfiction, so be gentle. And English is not my first language and I'm really sorry for all the mistakes (I'm sure there's lots of them).

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Doctor Who or any of the characters (I wish!)

They weren't far behind her. Their faces were angry grimaces and their skin was yellowishly orange - the kind of colour you couldn't associate with any good thing. But Rose didn't really care. She's seen weirder. She's seen so many aliens and monsters, she could hardly recall their faces and in good time, she'll forget the faces of Levonians chasing after her.

She admired the Doctor and his determination to understand every being and save those who deserved it. Not for a minute has she ever doubted Doctor's good intentions. But for Rose it was too much. Caring about what's right and what's not, who lives and who doesn't. She cared about humans, for sure, and the Doctor, and she used to care, at the beginning, while he... He's been looking after the universe for centuries, throughout all of time and space. Then again, he didn't have anyone of his own to care about.

Sadness overwhelmed her for a short second, but she didn't stop. Because he's told her to run, not just once. She knew the plan. Attract Levonians' attention, then run towards the left wing of the hospital, through the IC room labelled "Intensive 12" and onto the balcony, then close the doors behind you. The Doctor will hide around the corner, run after the Levonians and close the doors behind them. After you see the doors closed, jump from one balcony to the next one and come back inside. Easy enough plan.

"Intensive 12" was right around the corner. And - inside! Rose's heart was pumping. She felt the adrenalin kicking in. Right in time. She was gonna need it if she wanted to make that jump. Onto the balcony and close those doors. Levonians were all in the room and the doors behind them closed too. Rose could see the Doctor through the glass door of the balcony and a small window in Doctor's doors. She waved at him, but he was too busy deadlocking the door with his sonic to notice. She looked around. The next balcony was about half a meter away, but underneath was a three-story fall. Gulping, she climbed onto the rail of the balcony she was on. She thought about closing her eyes, but decided against it. Looking directly in front of her, she jumped. Her hands grabbed the rail, but her feet missed their landing and fell numbly downwards. She felt nine years of gymnastics take over her. Ungracefully she crumbled up onto the balcony, only to be greeted by Doctor's amused face.

Angrily she asked him: "How long have you been standing there?"

The Doctor smiled: "Oh, long enough." His voice was taunting.

He knew what she was going to ask, but she asked anyway. "And you didn't think I might need some help?"

The corners of his mouth turned up even more. It was close to a grin. "Nah, you had it under control."

Rose sighed. As much as the Doctor annoyed her, she's grown fond of his teasing. "So, what about the Levonians?" she asked.

The Doctor's face suddenly fell. He wasn't sad, he was still cheerful even, but he had what Rose called "a doctory face". He always wore this face when the matters were about his "job".

"I contacted the Shadow Proclamation. They're coming to get them home."

Rose looked at him with wide eyes. "But aren't they dangerous?"

He looked back at her like a teacher, proud of his students for asking the right question. "Oh no, the Levonians are actually really nice and non-violent creatures. They're only acting like that because they're rabid. They've been infected by common cold. Well, it's common for you, but deadly for them. They need to be vaccinated. Unfortunately, you don't have common cold vaccines. I mean, why would you? Well, there's a thousand reasons why, but anyway..."

There it was. His speech, a speech he made every time he explained something timelordy. His voice was smooth, full of "oh's" and "well's", serious enough to make her listen and relaxed enough to reassure her. With his explanations, she filled her mind encyclopaedia of the universe.

Name: Levinians

Status: alien

Home planet: ask the Doctor

Relations: friendly (except if they're infected by common cold)

Precaution: don't sneeze in their proximity

And there was a picture of enraged orange creatures. On the last "well" the Doctor walked out of the room, naturally assuming she'd follow. She did.

DW###DW###

Back in the TARDIS Rose sat down on one of the sits while the Doctor fiddled with the controls. She never knew what he was doing exactly, though he's explained it to her several times. After an ungracefully graceful turn, he was facing her.

"So, having fun yet?" he asked, this time grinning wide. It was obvious he was. Rose couldn't understand the kick he got every time he saved someone. She felt it too, the first few times. The rush of energy, the thankful looks of those they saved, the general feel-good mood of doing the right thing and the relieve when it was all over. Except it wasn't. Rose never thought she'd grow tired of travelling with the Doctor. And she hasn't really. But she was tired, she had to admit that. She needed a vacation.

"What's wrong?" asked the Doctor then. He's been with Rose long enough to know, when something was wrong and when she was just moody. Which was often. He crouched to look her in the eyes.

"The Levonians are gonna be fine. The Shadow Proclamation was made for this exact reason. To bring law to the Universe and help those who need help. Well, mostly. They have their flaws, but then who doesn't." Rose saw that about half way through the Doctor's figured that this wasn't the problem but continued anyway, because that's what he was like. More knowledge couldn't hurt.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor quarried again, real concern in his voice.

"It's nothing, just..." She didn't know how to tell him she wants to stop. They've always been running and it was all he's ever known. She wanted to stop but not without him.

"It's not nothing, it's not just, there's something on your mind and I need you to tell me." His voice was compelling, too compelling for Rose to handle. She wondered if that came with being a timelord or was it just the Doctor.

"I was just thinking that... maybe... maybe it's time for a break." she mumbled. It wasn't like her to mumble.

The Doctor stood up now, visibly happy that the problem is solved: "Well, you should've just said so. Well, sooner." He started pressing buttons and pulling levers again. Without even realizing it, Rose stood up and put her hand on his arm.

"No," she said quietly. "I meant **we** should take a break. Together. Away from the monsters and chases and dangers. Like a vacation."

She was thinking about taking a step back. She was afraid of the Doctor's reaction. He was an alien after all and she's just asked him to deny himself. He was a healer and doctors never took days off. His face, however, remained motionless. He was dwelling on the idea. After what seemed like minutes he made an uncertain gesture.

"You mean like a honeymoon?" Rose's face blushed bright red, her heartbeat jumped, when the thought of a honeymoon with the Doctor involuntarily flashed through her mind. The Doctor, on the other hand, seemed completely undisturbed. He was focusing all his attention on controlling the TARDIS, probably to stop her.

Isn't that how you call holydays for two?" he continued, when Rose didn't answer.

"No, I mean yes, but no, not like a honeymoon," she answered smiling. The Doctor seemed to have put this behind them.

"So, where and when do you have in mind?" he asked abruptly. Rose just stared at him. She hadn't expected him to jump on the idea so quickly. And she'd just realised she didn't really know what she wanted. The Doctor looked content; it wasn't easy to take Rose by surprise.

After a minute of thinking she shook her head: "Anywhere, any when, just three days, no psychic paper, no sonic screwdriver, no daleks, no cybermen, no paradoxes, no saving the universe, just you and me. Deal?"

She was afraid it all sounded to bossy and intimate, but the Doctor just grinned wildly and nodded: "Deal!" There was this spark in his eyes, almost as if spending three days without danger and monsters were the biggest adventure of his life.

"Setting the coordinates for anywhere anytime!" he exclaimed turning back to the controls.

"Allons-y!"

DW##DW##

Anywhere turned out to be a distant planet of Galloris and the time - early morning at the dawn of the high civilisation of Gallor.

Rose stepped out of the TARDIS first, the Doctor right behind her. She was too stunned to speak, but she heard the Doctor: "Galloris! Back before emperor Pishche, before the glory days! Rose, this is historic!"

All around her some kind of clay towers rose with big treelike branches and circular openings that could be windows. Indeed, faces appeared in the openings, reddish faces that resembled the colour of clay perfectly. Some of the creatures started climbing out of their windows, making Rose yelp. They were fast, like monkeys or squirrels, but they didn't approach her and the Doctor. They stopped a few feet away, looking at the couple curiously and a little scared.

"Doctor, where are we?" asked Rose. She was confused. She's expected a city with hotels, shops and civilized humanoids. Now she's found herself in an artificial forest full of squirrel-like monkeys.

"This is Galloris, home of the Great civilization of Gallor." Rose kept looking at the aliens and they kept staring back.

"What civilization?" she asked then, fearing she knew the answer.

"You're looking at it," answered the Doctor. "Of course this is only the beginning. Think of it as their Ancient Rome. Well, Egypt more likely. But by the 21th century they are one of the most advanced civilizations in the whole universe. Certainly more advanced than humans, no offence. But don't worry they're extremely peaceful, had only three galactic wars in fifteen thousand years they have contact with other species." explained the Doctor.

"But there's one more thing you should know." He looked up at the sky and the huge brightly yellow sun. "One Gallorian day lasts three Earthly months. «


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Author's note**: I know it took me far to long to upload this. I promise to get better at this. Anyway, here you go!

"We bigger hole need," observed the Gallorian, who's taken them to see their "apartment". He hopped away, his furry tail flapping behind him.

"Doctor, why are they talking like that?" asked Rose. She had so many questions but decided to start with less personal matters.

"Oh, it's just the TARDIS. She's picking up Gallorian, but languages change. This is archaic Gallorian and she's translating standard Gallorian. Give her some time, she'll pick it up, she always does." Doctor was leaning against one of the tree-like complexes. He has managed to get them a ground floor apartment but the hole obviously wasn't big enough for them to easily enter.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Rose. She still couldn't get over the fact that she was stuck on planet Apesquirrel for nine months. If she gets pregnant today she might still give birth before leaving.

The Doctor shrugged: "Whatever you want." After a long pause he continued: "You know we're gonna need to work, right? They may give us a rent-free apartment, but in return they expect us to work. Give the community back everything it offers us. That's how Gallorians earn."

Rose figured out as much. Every Gallorian had its profession; she's seen farmers on the fields behind the trees, growing some weird crops of different colours; she's seen merchants selling those crops and sky blue meat. She had to admit, the idea of harvesting fire red corn didn't really appeal to her. Nonetheless, she couldn't ask the Doctor to take her back; she was the one who wanted to come here in the first place.

"So, how do we get a job?" she asked, just to ease the tension.

"No idea. For all we know it is chosen by the chief," answered Doctor, his attention already on the Gallorian coming their way. He was holding a circular metal device, that looked too heavy for a creature his size, but he didn't seem to have any problem carrying it. Approaching the twosome, he gestured them to stand aside, then he placed the device in the middle of the opening and pressed a button. The metal circle swished outwards and started to carve the window bigger. Miniature clay chips rained around them until the window had been big enough Rose could almost get in without ducking. The Gallorian moved away from the window. Rose exchanged an excited look with the Doctor and together they climbed in.

The apartment was one big round room, lit by bright yellow flames that burned on some kind of torches. There was a large rectangular rock that looked like a table and two sitting devices made from an unknown material. And in the middle of a room was a rectangular piece of foam-like material that seemed soft enough to be a bed. By ancient standards it was probably a beautiful flat for one person. Or a couple.

The Doctor, once again, had been completely oblivious, walking straight to one of the torches and examining it with a big smile. "Oh, look at this! Living wood! There are these microscopic creatures that feed on ashes and produce wood. It's fire that never burns out! Now this is torchwood!" he said to no one in particular.

As interesting as eternal flame sounded, Rose needed to establish some ground rules first. "Doctor, there's only one bed," she simply said, hoping it was enough for him to get the clue.

Turning around, he snapped out of his fascination over the ever burning torch and looked around the room like he's only just realized they were one bed short. "Oh, that's not a problem. You can have the bed if you don't want to share. I barely sleep at all."

With that the problem was deemed solved from Doctor's perspective. Rose was unsure of how she felt about the Doctor even proposing they share a bed, but she let it be. Truth be told, she probably wouldn't mind but it somehow just didn't feel right.

A ruff voice woke her from her thoughts: "You anything need, you ask." It was the Gallorian who enlarged their entrance. Apparently he followed them inside.

The Doctor nodded and noted: "I didn't seem to catch your name."

The Gallorian didn't respond, so the Doctor decided for a more direct approach: "Your name what is?"

The Gallorian looked confused, but then he answered: "Kocha."

He's already turned to walk away, when the Doctor called after him: "Hey, Mister Kocha, could you tell your chief we requested to see him?" Without answering the Gallorian climbed out of the tree.

The Doctor sat himself happily into one of the chairs and somehow managed to look busy doing nothing. He seemed completely domestic in a foreign chair, maybe because he didn't really have a home. Rose, on the other hand, sat on a bed as if it weren't her own, the way you sit when you go to your friend's house and only their patents are home. It could have to do with the huge hole in the wall that was supposed to be their door.

The chief clearly hadn't had anything important to do. He was in their tree in less than three minutes, Earth time. "Oh, hello!" exclaimed the Doctor, when a red ape head appeared in the frame of their window.

"You welcome are," greeted the chief politely. He seemed nicer than Kocha.

"You work must," he continued then. Rose didn't like him that much anymore. She sighed.

"What do you have in mind?" asked the Doctor curiously. He seemed to be entirely on board with the idea.

"I work choose," answered the chief boldly. Rose was beginning to fear her fate. God knows what dirty work they demanded from immigrants. The Doctor, again completely unperturbed, just stared at the chief, waiting for him to continue. Seriously, not much could throw him off.

"So, what do we have to do?" asked Rose. She just wanted to get it over with. The chief, however, obviously chose to ignore her.

"You doctor be?" he asked the Doctor.

The Doctor smiled. "That's correct! Well, I'm more of a teacher though, technically speaking," he answered.

The chief nodded and repeated: "You doctor be." It took Rose a while to figure that the Doctor just got a job.

"You Rose be?" the chief averted his attention to her.

She nodded: "Yes." She didn't know how that piece of information was in any way relevant for the conversation they were having.

"You farmer be," declared the chief and Rose could swear that she caught a glimpse of a sly smile. She felt irrational rage overwhelming her. She hadn't come to this stinking planet to grow red corn. She came here to relax, to have fun.

The Doctor must have sensed it, because he answered instead of her: "Good! When do we start?" The chief smiled: "In half an hour." Rose thought she hadn't understood correctly. Half an hour? That was like - now. She liked this planet less and less.

The Doctor turned to her then: "Don't worry. Half an hour on this planet means roughly a day on Earth. We don't start until tomorrow."

Rose let herself breathe again. "Everything good is?" asked the chief, sensing some misunderstanding must have happened.

Rose and Doctor nodded simultaneously.

"You both fifty sots be paid will. Good you work, good we pay." The Doctor nodded. The deal seemed fair, though fifty sots wasn't that much. It'll have to work.

"I Kocha send will. He you work show," the chief finished, rendering the matter closed. He sauntered off then, leaving Rose and the Doctor alone.

DW##DW##

Rose had been staring out the window for an hour then. She couldn't sleep. Outside the sun was shining in bright yellow, bathing the world in late morning warmth. It must have been nice out there, but in Rose's desperate search for sleep it couldn't have been more annoying. The first thing she'll have to do tomorrow (in a few minutes?) is find some cloth or something to cover the entrance. From time to time she could also see some Gallorians pass by. They didn't look inside, but the fact that they could made Rose uncomfortable.

She turned around, so she was no longer facing the window. The Doctor was sitting in a chair, seeming utterly peaceful with his eyes closed and his facial muscles relaxed, but Rose knew he wasn't sleeping, as he's told her to 'quit staring' when she was facing him before.

Sensing Rose was watching, the Doctor opened his eyes too. His gaze locked with Rose's and they engaged in a silent conversation.

"I can't sleep," said Rose's eyes, exasperation shining through them as if she were trying to set the world ablaze.

"I understand," answered the Doctor's eyes full of empathy.

Suddenly he sat up and approached the entrance. Rose followed him with her eyes as he lingered there for a few moments. He looked at her again, his mind lost in deep thought. She smiled at the sight and watched in surprise as he suddenly took of his jacket. Realising there's nothing to hold the jacket up, the Doctor stretched out his arms, holding the jacket so it covered most of the entrance. It helped a lot. The apartment fell darker at once, but Rose couldn't let him just stand there.

"You don't have to do that," she said, her voice husky from long silence. She coughed to clear her throat and added: "Go back to sleep."

The Doctor gave her a sad smile and objected: "I wasn't sleeping. And I don't need to, really. But you do. Just close your eyes."

His smooth and completely rested voice made Rose shiver. She obeyed and closed her eyes, a ghostly image of Doctor's outstretched Jesus-like pose printing itself on the back of her mind.

Essentially she got a few hours of sleep, waking up the next day unrested but ready. The Doctor was sitting back in his chair, silently staring at her. Not in a creepy, stalking way, it was a look that a mother would give a sleeping child. It made Rose smile.

"Come on, we have to get ready!" exclaimed the Doctor and sprang out of his chair. Gracefully, as if he hadn't just spent hours in an uncomfortable chair, he walked over to the window and gazed outside giving Rose some privacy to get herself together.

She fell back on her cushions or whatever the foam under her head was. You would've thought that with years of waking up you get used to it, but no, leaving the comfort of a bed and a blanket is never easy. Defying all her instincts she scrambled out of the bed and corrected her tracksuit that was hanging sidewise across her body, leaving one shoulder bare. Her head was still spinning and she was starving but this wasn't her first sleepless night, to be honest.

"He's coming," warned the Doctor quietly and moved away from the window.

Indeed, behind him Kocha climbed inside with a stern look on his red face: "We work go!"


End file.
